wonder woman #23 spoilers

[Lex Luthor]

Very disappointing. Minority opinion here but I really liked Diana in The New 52's JUSTICE LEAGUE and SUPERMAN/WONDER WOMAN.

If one of the goals of #Rebirth was to bring back pre-FLASHPOINT history, legacy that was purportedly lost or whatever flowery nonsense Geoff Johns was spewing, then why the hell did Greg Rucka undo George Perez's seminal post CRISIS reboot story of Diana battling the real Ares as her first mission outside Themyscira?

I did not enjoy the Azzarello and Chiang run at all and was hopeful when it was announced that Rucka would captain WONDER WOMAN post-#Rebirth, but once again I'm left with the feeling that I don't know or recognize my favorite comic book character in her own title, which is how I felt after 3 years of Azzarello and Chiang being at the helm of The New 52 Wonder Woman.

I pray to God the movie delivers unlike Rucka's run post #Rebirth.

Perez's run was decades ago isn't it unfair to expect Rucka to be so consistent with material that's so old? Plenty of her pre n52/post crisis stuff was contradictory.

[Mel Dyer]

I think it's time to forget this entire run and wipe the slate, again...a new, bold, new direction for Wonder Woman.

[Lex Luthor]

I think it's time to forget this entire run and wipe the slate, again...a new, bold, new direction for Wonder Woman.

Why? [10 char]

[Miles To Go]

I think it's time to forget this entire run and wipe the slate, again...a new, bold, new direction for Wonder Woman.

I won't be forgetting it in a hurry. Great run.

[nightw1ng]

Now that it's basically finished, I must say I'm a little disappointed in this run. I would have preferred they go the Superman route wherein a lot of the pre-Flashpoint history was merged with the New 52, so almost everything is in continuity. Instead, Rucka went exactly the opposite direction. A ton of the stories we've read about Diana have been a deception and a huge chunk of her past has turned into a blank slate. It just feels needlessly complicated. I can easily see another writer coming along and retconning her history when DC inevitably reboots their universe for the umpteenth time.

[SiegePerilous02]

And what about when Superman met Azzarello's version of the Greek gods, or when Diana teamed with Batwoman at a site in Man's World that Amazons had been guarding? And what about Exoristos? Is all that stuff from The New 52 just retconned out, or converted into fantasies that gods imposed on Diana?

While the final execution of where these stories fit it from this point forward is indeed very messy, does it really matter in the long run? DC appears to be distancing itself from the Superman/Wonder Woman romance (and with good reason, it was seldom good) so worrying about a story where Clark meets the Olympians while dating Diana doesn't seem that important anymore. Exoristos was part of a (very good) series that was unfortunately canceled way before the New 52 era even came to a close, and will be remembered as just one more of DC's many failed experiments and she had zero impact on WW herself, so she was always going to be cast into Limbo forevermore even before Rucka showed up.

The New 52 era being written off as elaborate fantasies in Diana's head doesn't bother me too much. It's not like she needs to bring it up and put focus on all the little details in every story going forward.

If one of the goals of #Rebirth was to bring back pre-FLASHPOINT history, legacy that was purportedly lost or whatever flowery nonsense Geoff Johns was spewing, then why the hell did Greg Rucka undo George Perez's seminal post CRISIS reboot story of Diana battling the real Ares as her first mission outside Themyscira?

Because the intention was never to restore things exactly as Perez had them. "Gods and Mortals" was good, but it doesn't work as a modern template for many reasons.

I think it's time to forget this entire run and wipe the slate, again...a new, bold, new direction for Wonder Woman.

Yeah, I don't think that's a good idea.

I thought you liked this run? You seem to change your mind about it every other post.

[SonOfDiana]

That's the thing about rebirth-it's a new timeline. It's not post-coie nor nu52. So she has a new origin. Sure, Superman's was a mix of the two but not this. Batman's timeline is that all of nu52 happened. Diana's is that none of it happened. Either way, new timeline, new origin.

I feel like this run started off amazing but then it lost its steam. It seemed like Rucka had a lot of great plans and direction but he got tired of it and it lost its steam around the point Diana was hospitalized. Stories were stretched out to make filler issues. Things that were supposed to happen organically over time were rushed through. It's like he meant to stay on for five years but once he decided he was leaving after one, he just wanted to tie it all up.

As someone who vocally despised nu52 Azzarello Woman, I am very very thankful this wiped it away. I do agree that this Rucka run wasn't as strong as his first time at bat. I wonder how much of this will be kept or will the next writer recon this recon. Who knows.

[Scott Taylor]

Well, I enjoyed it quite a lot for the mythological elements in particular. Having a god be defeated by emotion makes so much more sense to me than having them lose in a glorified fist fight. The gods in Greek mythology were moved by things like music and human emotion, and were prone to the same kinds of foibles as humans.

Not sure about having Diana barred permanently from Paradise Island. Its true that in some past runs Themiscyra sometimes felt a little more like Hogwarts in its level of accessibility, and that didn't feel right either. Hopefully moving forward we'll get a balance where she can at least communicate with her mother on occasion with the help of the patrons.

And, like others have said, the way this story ended just begs for someone to come along and release Ares and through everything into chaos.

[CRaymond]

Okay, I'm going to ask the forum if anyone else was put off a logic leap WAY back in issue 7? I'm speaking of the conversation between Cheetah and Diana wherein Wonder Woman pushed Barbara on the exact relationship of the women who worship Urzkarataga, the Cheetah host, and the plant god "him"self. I'm at work or I'd dig for exact dialog.

Anyway, Diana ends the fight by having a few captive girls conduct a ritual "imprisoning" Urzkartaga. While somewhat interesting as reveal --I'm always into the kind of world-building that uncovers ancient practice from modern misunderstandings-- there was VERY LITTLE WORK done in the action or dialog that would inform Diana that captive women were in fact Urzkartaga's jailors. It bothered me a LOT, but not so much that I wasn't enjoying Rucka's work. I was enthralled with how gorgeous and crisp Year One was shaping up.

The reveal & logic leap in issue 7 is important in discussing this issue because it telegraphed the rest of the arc. It was SO weird and sore thumb that I knew it had to be foreshadowing, and since the Amazons had a relationship to gods, and one god in particular, I knew by the end of Year One that Themyscira was a prison, and Amazons were his jailors. One year later, and look where we are.

I'll pick up my critique again later in this thread but I wanted to stop here and see if any of you felt odd with how quick Diana "solved" the Urzkartaga problem, and feel her "solving" Deimos and Phobos was similarly, maddeningly swift?

[Qwerty]

I can't wait till Sharp is off this book. The art in this issue was awful. I loved the year one and God watch art but couldn't stand any of the lies/truth art.

[Sciquest2525]

If WW is not daughter of Zeus, nothing in new 52 was all fantasy and she can never go to Paradise Island, then this series is one big bad idea and needs to be changed by whoever gets the permanent writing job next.

[Sacred Knight]

My gut feeling is that she's staying Zeus's daughter. I don't think Rucka likes the idea, but I think that's why he just didn't go too much into it. It was probably one thing he wasn't allowed to change, so just left it pretty much a non-issue in his story, and someone else will deal with it/confirm it later.

[Aioros22]

While I enjoy the current team take on Ares...Chang and Azz`s take on the Greek deities to me were far more on point in terms of creativity, reiventation and simbolic feel of the same. Also, this is taking too long to reach somewhere.

[Dr. Poison]

I like the way this issue resolved all the of the New 52 problems with Wonder Woman's world. The Zeus-daddy origin wasn't revealed to Diana until she was an adult that went back to the faux-island. The man-killing, baby-trading Amazons were all from the faux-island. The menagerie of Olympians including the snooze-fest known as the First Born were all manifestations of Demos and Phobos. That explains why the Justice League never bothered to intervene in the battle against the First Born even though he was said to be powerful enough to hold open a Boom Tube yet Diana defeated him by using deception and luring him into a bottomless pit. The ugly Finch-costume with the bracelet blades, the awful Finch revamps of Dr. Poison and Aegeus are all washed away by this as well.

I do hope that some day, some writer finds a way to release Ares so he can do battle against Diana again down the line even if I don't want him showing up every 5 or 6 issues. I wonder if Veronica will befriend Diana after this?

[numberthirty]

I like the way this issue resolved all the of the New 52 problems with Wonder Woman's world. The Zeus-daddy origin wasn't revealed to Diana until she was an adult that went back to the faux-island. The man-killing, baby-trading Amazons were all from the faux-island. The menagerie of Olympians including the snooze-fest known as the First Born were all manifestations of Demos and Phobos. That explains why the Justice League never bothered to intervene in the battle against the First Born even though he was said to be powerful enough to hold open a Boom Tube yet Diana defeated him by using deception and luring him into a bottomless pit. The ugly Finch-costume with the bracelet blades, the awful Finch revamps of Dr. Poison and Aegeus are all washed away by this as well.

It really doesn't.

There are obvious hitches that it only took a second to think of.